Portfolios
Summary
The Portfolios protocol defines the various artifacts or output work that you can achieve to improve your skill as a technologist, engineer, designer, or product owner.
Motivation
We wrote this protocol because we've found that a lot of individuals struggle to find the mid-point between milestones, leaving them in a state of analysis paralysis. This protocol is designed such that it teaches the concept of breaking down your goals into more intermediate steps that are manageable and unblocked, so that you can consistently find progress in your training and growth. Fundamentally, it's about discovering what's the appropriate portfolio work that opens up the next stage, and making clear what your actionable items are to move forward.
By reading this protocol, you will be able to break down your goals into manageable milestones.
Definition
Portfolio work is a time-bound or resource-bound project that has clear project objectives and is optimized for one or two specific purposes. The more specific, the better a portfolio is as a stepping stone towards what you are pursuing.
The primary characteristics of a Portfolio work are the following:
Scoped - The portfolio must be scoped in terms of its objectives, capabilities, resource requirements, and time.
SMART - Typical definition of a SMART objective: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.
Aligned - The Portfolio work must be aligned not only with your objectives but also the timing: it is about preparing the things you'll need just-in-time when you need them.
Measured - Although this has already been mentioned under SMART, this is of great importance that it needs to be said again. Portfolio work must be measured because that is how you can truly evaluate whether the objectives have been met, and to measure your performance appropriately.
Non-software engineering portfolio work
In non-technical terminologies, here are a few examples:
Basketball
When playing Basketball, playing competitions every summer is a kind of portfolio work.
Scoped - Joining competitions every summer within the state where you live in, province, or region.
SMART - An initial goal is to improve your passing and minimize turnovers.
Aligned - In the long run, you're trying to improve spatial awareness which is critical to the role you play.
Measured - Each practice game and actual game in the competition, you have someone frequency counting the passing and turnovers.
The above examples of characteristics of Portfolio work from the standpoint of basketball, as these metrics can later be communicated to hiring coaches in university, or in professional leagues.
Software engineering portfolios
In software engineering, you have a variety of portfolios to develop and practice different skills.
Website Optimization performance
Skills to practice: Content optimization, lazy-loading.
Sprint Planning
Skills to practice: Communication, collaboration, correctness, meeting efficiency
Code reviews through Merge Requests (MRs) or Pull Requests (PRs)
Skills to practice: Communication, recording feedback from peers
1-on-1 mentoring sessions
Skills to practice: Clarity, planning, commitment, accountability, estimation
Benefits
Simple definitions of portfolio work.
Common terminology to understand each other when it comes to building up your portfolio.
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